My class schedule is:
Monday:
10-11am, Art History Tutorial
3-4pm, Art History Lecture
Tuesday:
9:30-12:30, Figurative Sculpture
3-4pm, Art History Lecture
Wednesday:
10-1pm, Black and White Photography
1-2pm, Bagpipes Private Lesson
Thursday:
3-4pm, Art History Lecture
4-5pm, Bagpipes Lecture
Friday:
NO CLASS (Most of my traveling will start on Thursday nights or Friday mornings.)
Tuesday:
I had my first sculpture class from 9:30-12:30. I took the underground (aka The Clockwork Orange) to the Cowcaddens stop and walked to the sculpture studio. We had a nude model on our first day and it went great. The class is only 4 people, so we get a lot of help and one-on-one time with our teacher, Katherine. The model was very nice and on our break she gave us all chocolate. It’s so nice to have a model that can interact with you and make you feel comfortable in the studio.
My sculpture studio.
My first figure sculpture.
After sculpture, I took The Clockwork Orange back to my flat and hung out until around 3pm when I walked to art history. In between art history and dinner, Briana, Laura and I watched Friends on my laptop for a little while and then decided we wanted to go out for dinner and drinks at Oran Mor. Oran Mor is a gorgeous restaurant/bar/club. It was converted from an old church, with some Mackintosh influences inside. We ordered Caesar salads and hung out with our friends Laura (another Laura), Ted, and AJ joined up with us a little later. After dinner, we walked to Ashton Lane and went to a bar called Nude for Mojitos. AJ joined the lacrosse team here at the university, so we happened to bump into two of his teammates at the bar and talked to them for a while. It was an early night because Laura and I had class at 10 the next morning, so we went back to the flat and got some sleep.
Wednesday:
We walked to photography at around 9:30 and got to the studio around 10. The entire class was just talking about the camera, settings, how to focus it, and what the class would be about throughout the semester. We also received our own cameras and film that we will be able to use all semester. After photography, I had a private lesson with my bagpiping teacher, Glenn. They still don’t have enough practice chanters for everyone, so I have been using Glenn’s for this week. I learned the scale and fingering for the chanter, and it does NOT sound pretty when you don’t blow hard enough into the instrument. I was laughing throughout the entire lesson because I couldn’t get the sound right. Glenn is a character and I’m excited to have such a great tutor for my lessons. When he plays, he does circular breathing, which not many musicians can do. The reason Kenny G. is so famous and good at what he does is because he can do circular breathing. It is when you puff up your cheeks and store air in your mouth while you inhale through your nose and blow out that fresh air into the instrument. It allows musicians to play an entire tune without taking their mouth off of the instrument. It’s fascinating to watch Glenn play the bagpipe while circular breathing.
The National Piping Centre in Glasgow
After bagpiping, I had a meeting with Anna West, our study abroad coordinator, and talked to her about my classes and how I have been settling in here in Glasgow. Summary of the meeting: love the city, love the people, I’ve made great friends, and I’m excited for the rest of the semester! I really couldn’t be happier here. I know I don’t have a heavy course load, but that is WHY I am having such a good time here. If I had more work, I would not be able to enjoy the city I’m living in and meet all of these great people. I, of course, am going to try to do my own side projects to keep me busy, like sketching, traveling, reading, etc., but right now I’m enjoying not being stressed out like I was last semester in New York.
At around 4:30, Laura and I went to the Glasgow University Union to buy tickets for the Newcastle Trip for international students. It was 40 pounds for a bus ride to Newcastle, staying in a hostel, dinner, entrance to a bar/club, and then a ride back to Glasgow. After buying tickets, I went to get my wireless internet connection fixed in the library so I could use the wireless in my flat. We ended up staying in on Wednesday night even though I didn’t have class until 4pm the next day.
Thursday:
At 1:15pm, after sleeping in a wee bit (yes, I just said “wee”), I went to the gym with Briana and at 3:30pm all of us headed to the National Piping Centre for our first Bagpipes lecture.
Later that night, we decided to go to The Hive, which is a club at the Glasgow University Union on campus, down the street from my flat. Everyone came over to our room before going out and then we went to get in line (or the queue) at the Union. It took us a while to get in and it was raining outside, but once we got in it was definitely worth it. Earlier that night we though we were going to a UN party, so we were all dressed in red, white, and blue, but we ended up deciding not to go to that club because it was too far away. Therefore, we went to the stoplight party at the Hive in our red, white and blue. They paint lines on your face (red, yellow, or green) depending on your relationship status. We all had a great time at the Hive and danced the entire night until we left the club at around 2:30.
The girls in all of our red, white, and blue.
Dancing at The Hive
Friday:
Laura and I spent most of the day hanging out around the flat and then at 6:30pm we went to our friends apartment for “family dinner.” Family Dinner is when a few people go out and buy a bunch of ingredients and a couple people cook for everyone, and we all have dinner together. We all end up paying around 2 or 3 pounds for dinner with all of our friends. On Friday dinner was with Laura, Heather, another Laura, Lindsey, Liam, AJ, Sarah, Briana, and me. We had fajitas and they were SO good! This is definitely a tradition we will stick with for this semester.
Saturday:
At 9am, we went to the Main Gate of the university and got on the bus to Newcastle with all of the other international students. We were dropped off at the hostel, checked into our rooms, and then got on the bus to go to the city centre. Our first stop was lunch, and then shopping in the city centre. There isn’t much to see in Newcastle, so we decided to just walk around the mall and along the main street.
I think this is the Millennium Bridge in Newcastle. (I took this while we were on the bus.)
Laura, Briana, and I shared a room.
What we didn't know was that the bottom bunk was a double :-P
Around 4:30pm we took the Metro back to the hostel, got dressed for dinner and hopped on the metro around 5:30 to meet the rest of the international students at the Monument in the city centre. Hojjat (the president of the International Society) took us to an Iranian buffet, which was actually very good. After dinner we went to a bar and sat around until 10:30. Although we were all getting very bored in the bar, it was the best people watching I have ever done. I have never seen so many stilettos, mini dresses, big hair, fake eyelashes, layers of makeup, and fake tans in my life. I really wish I could have gotten some pictures of the people in the bar for all of you to see. The bar we were in was also beautiful to look at, because it was an old bank with the huge columns.
The interior of the Revolution Bar.
At 10:30pm, we went next door to a Hidden club called Madame Koo. You have to walk down a couple flights of stairs to get to the dance floor. By that time, we were getting sort of tired but when we saw all the people on the dance floor, we knew we had to get on there with everyone else. They played some great music and I even had a dance-off with a guy on the dance floor. He started doing all of this crazy footwork and break-dancing moves, so I decided to challenge him and we had a little dance-off. We danced from about 11pm to 1am and then decided it was time to go back to the hostel to get some sleep before waking up at 8:15 the next morning.
Sunday:
Our alarm went off at 8:15am to go get some breakfast downstairs. The hostel manager had croissants, yogurt, fruit, orange juice, and cheese waiting for us. After breakfast, we went back up to our room to sleep until 9:40 because we had to get on the bus at 10. We drove about 20 minutes from Newcastle to the sea. The girls and I decided to sit in the aquarium café for hot chocolate/coffee/tea while looking out at Whitley Bay and the beach. We then got back on the bus to go to Durham Castle. After seeing Durham Castle and walking around there for a while, the bus driver took us to Newcastle’s MetroCentre, which is the largest mall in Europe. We didn’t want to walk around the mall because we didn’t want to be tempted to spend any more money, so we found a nice restaurant and ate a great lunch before getting on the bus around 3. From there, we took the bus back to Glasgow, went grocery shopping, and then came back to the flat to relax before another week of classes.
The beach and Whitley Bay
A turtle at the Blue Reef Aquarium
The girls walking back to our bus to go to Durham
Durham
Me in front of the Durham Cathedral
The girls (Sarah, Briana, Laura, Lindsey, Heather, and Laura) at Durham Castle
Monday:
I just had my 10am Art History discussion class, and now I am sitting in the kitchen, updating this blog, and thinking about eating some lunch. I have to go to my art history lecture in 2 hours, so I’m trying to organize my schedule and figure out my side projects for the semester.
Now that I am finally done with my blog update, I just found out the internet is working again in our rooms…I’m going to move over there to upload all of the pictures for this entry.
Love and miss you all!
Love Always,
Jess
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